Councillors’ corner – cllr Shona Holt Contribution of our village halls

It was Village Halls Week during late January, which is a national annual campaign to shine a spotlight on the contribution England’s 10,000+ village halls make to rural communities.

We are fortunate to have a number of village halls and community spaces within the Melksham Without parish area – in Bowerhill, Shaw, Whitley and now the new purpose-built hall at Berryfield.

These community spaces are so important for the local areas where we live – providing warm, welcoming and inclusive spaces where people can gather and socialise, or learn and inspire.

A sense of togetherness and community is especially important as the country navigates the cost of living crisis. As a resident of Berryfield, I have watched the new village hall grow out of the ground since construction started in January 2022.

To enhance a community feel, the parish council involved locals to choose colour schemes and finishes for all the internal spaces. And recognition of local heritage is celebrated with the public art, designed by an international artist, on the outside of the hall.

The Berryfield Village Hall Trust are currently working hard to get everything in place to open the doors very soon for bookings. But none of this would have been possible without the original (and somewhat smaller) village hall portacabin, which was sited in Berryfield Park and sourced by local resident Steve Petty.

By working together as a community, look what we can achieve for the benefit of our local area! And this is the ethos that persuaded me to stand as a parish councillor for Berryfield in 2021.

I work full-time locally and had recently moved from a neighbouring town onto a new housing development.

Joining the parish council has been a great way to be involved with the local community and I certainly recommend it.